HUGE DISTILLERY

Grey River Argus, 2 May 1932, Page 4

HUGE DISTILLERY

SEIZED AT CHICAGO Attributed to Capone (Aus. 4 N.Z. Cable Assn). (Received May 1 at 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK. April 30. The “New York Times’s” Chicago correspondent states: The 250,000 dollar liquor distillery of Al Capone, in Chicago, which is equipped with trapdoors. and blind entrances, and which has a sumptuously furnished look-out room, has been seized by the Prohibition authorities to-day, who declared that it is the largest illicit plant that has been seized in the United States. Since the Prohibition agents were unable to obtain an entrance, they called a wrecking crew, who cut a hole through the wall with pickaxes, and they found the plant in full operation, although only one man, a fireman, was arrested, the others all escaping. The equipment included two 5000gallon stills, three 5000-gallon tanks full of alcohol, and other extensive machinery. The Prohibition authorities state: — “Only one bootlegger in the world could finance and operate such a distillery, and that is Al Capone.” The plant occupies three buildings, one serving as a power house, the second being for the vats, and the third for the stills. Naptha was mixed with the exhaust fumes to neutralise the suspicious alcoholic odour before reaching the outside. The estimated profits of the plant are 10,000 dollars daily. It has been in operation for a year.